Silhouettes
by CSIvHP11
Summary: Post LD fic, original on Fan..., GSR, what could of happened if Sara had found her way into the city, Living Doll spoilers


Silhouettes

"Gil, Gil, wake up Gil" Jim Brass said trying to get Grissoms attention, then continued when he did. "A helicopter spotted an overturned car about five miles north of the city. From what they could tell it is red in color."

As he listened, Grissoms heart exploded with joy. It had to be Sara; it just had to be. After they rounded up the rest of the team they headed to the cars. Just before he opened the drivers' door, Catherine came up behind Grissom.

"Maybe I should drive" she suggested. Perhaps she had noticed the look on his face, or she knew him to well but she knew his mind was elsewhere. When they started he realized she was right, because he couldn't focus and once they got to the dessert all he did was search for a glint for metal on the horizon.

When they reached the car, before Catherine had stopped completely, Grissom threw the door open, jumped out and ran towards the mustang. When he reached the other side he fell to his knees. As the rest of the team joined him they found out why, it was obvious that someone had been there, but the weren't there now. The team could see what was left of ruts made by fingers scratching at the sand trying to get out, but the wind had blown more sand over them and the rain water had flatten them. As they stood Greg was the first to move by lying down on his stomach and looked in the car.

"I see what I think is blood, and some hairs," he noted.

"Blood? Did Natalie cut her?" Nick spoke up and asked.

"No, it's on a metal fragment that is protruding from the top, umm, the bottom, oh you know hat I mean," Greg answered as he reached to get a swap of the blood. He then pulled out his tweezers and grabbed one of the hairs. " Brunette, bout the length of Saras'."

Back at the lad Greg gave both samples to DNA. He later got the results, both were Saras'.

The next day Grissom didn't show up for work, using his many vacations days. They didn't mind his absence until a month later none of them had seen him, in the lab or out.

The next day before work Catherine drove to his house. She knocked on the door a few times, he didn't answer. She could hear him inside so she tried again, this time pounding on the door while yelling.

"GIL GRISSOM, YOU BETTER LET ME IN RIGHT NOW," it appeared to have worked because she could hear the lock, the door opened and he let her in.

His hair was a mess, his beard was growing back and his clothes looked, and smelled, dirty. Once inside she noticed other changes, like how most of the mail lay unopened on the floor, how all the knifes were missing from the knife block on the counter, how he dishes pilled in the sink and the trash can was overflowing with take out. When the door closed a dog ran from a room in the back with what she assumed was a hopeful look on its face, however when he saw that his mistress hadn't come home his tail and face dropped and he walked back to the room now with a look that matched Grissoms.

"Listen Gil, you need to come back to the lab, we need you there. We all miss Sara, the lab isn't the same without her but you need to come back, notices went out to every town within 100 miles of the car. If anyone has seen her we will know in a moment, there is still a chance she's alive," Catherine told him.

"No there isn't. It's been a month since she was taken and you can only last THREE days without water. She's gone Cath, stop pretending," he whispered in a defeated voice.

"Gil, you can't give up, she could of found her way into the city, it is possible" she tried, partially in vain, to cheer him up. It hurt her to see her old friend like this and she needed to try and cheer him up.

"Cath, I read the paper everyday to see if there is any news on Sara. I know as much as you do, they deemed her dead weeks ago. They had sent search groups into the dessert and alleys to find any evidence of her. She's gone Cath, gone."

"Then at least come back to the lab. We already lost one great CSI, we can't afford to lose another, remember that's the reason you kept Warrick after Holly Gribbs was killed. We need you there," after she said it he just sat looking over her shoulder, she knew what he was thinking about, how because Gribbs had been killed he had brought Sara in to investigate.

"Fine, Cath, I'll come back tomorrow," he gave up.

"Good, cause I don't think I can handle Eckile much longer" and she left to get to work.

Like he had said Grissom showed up to work the next day, however he was distant, like he was in another world. No one could contact him, all he did was stare into space.

He was finally forced to go out onto the field with Greg. While he was at the scene he had something weird happened.

He was looking at some glass that was on the floor when he heard someone behind him. He turned around and saw Sara standing there, however she was different, almost transparent.

"Gil, help me Gil" he heard her say.

"Sara, is that really you?" he asked her.

"That depends, on how much you want me here" and with that she vanished.

Grissom decided to get some air so he walked out of the house and scanned the faces of the crowd that was gathered behind the yellow crime scene tape. Hs eyes lingered on one in the back; she vanished so fast when she noticed that he wondered for a moment if he had imagined her.

"Hey Gil, shifts over" Catherine started looking in his office "we're going to the diner for breakfast, you coming?"

When she asked, he stood up and walked toward her, " No, I think I'll take a walk" he mumbled as her passed her.

So is he coming?" Nick asked coming up behind her.

"No, he said something about a walk" she replied.

"Man, I'm worried about him, that's not the Grissom we know" Warrick said suddenly next to Nick.

When they got to the diner, after they had ordered, they noticed Grissom walking by on the sidewalk.

"I wonder were he's going" Catherine commented.

"I bet I know" Greg told them.

He started to walk. Were to, he did not know, anywhere to escape her memory. Without thinking he turned into one of Los Vegas's many alleys. However the alley only brought back memories because the alley he had turned into was the one he had traded for a scarf with blood on it during the Ashleigh James case. He could still hear himself, "I have a gal named Sara."

As he walked deeper into the alley he passed a small percent of the homeless population in Vegas. He stopped and bent down to tie his shoe. Next to him was a homeless leaning against the wall looking like a big blob, in fact he wouldn't of noticed the person if he hadn't heard what it was mumbling under its breath.

"Ni…Ni… Ca… Ca… Wa…Wa… Gr… Gr… Gi… Gi…" from the voice he could tell it was a female and for a moment it sounded like she was trying to name his team, but he dismissed that saying he was paranoid.

He started to keep on walking when her heard someone speak behind him.

"Grissom? Grissom?" the voice sounded like it was tasting something for the first time and trying to find out if it like it. He turned around but couldn't see who had called out his name so he kept walking.

"Grissom? Grissom!" this time it seemed to recognize the name. He turned around again and saw the female he had stopped by earlier now standing. He turned around and kept walking; he walked fast and faster until he broke into a run. After running for a couple moments he heard his name again, something in him forced him to stop, the voice was horse yet vaguely familiar. H looked over his shoulder and his trance was broken when he saw her walking, with a limp, closer, for a few steps she tried to run but something stopped her.

It didn't take long for him to out run her. He kept making random turns and soon found himself running through the dessert and was soon forced to stop due to a stitch in his side. He looked at the city and noticed that the women hadn't yet left the city. As he stood there he could see her emerging from the buildings, she seemed to be slowing down, and even so when the pain had stopped he continued his run. He had to escape. Escape Vegas, escape Saras' memory, escape this women that was starting to creep him out.

Before he knew it he tripped on the shoelace he had tie in the alley. When he fell he felt tears fall down his face, they weren't for the pain, he welcomed the pain, it showed he was alive. He cried because of the empty void that now existed in his heart, in his life. He had to except she was gone of he would end up like the homeless he had passed. He would end up worse. He knew that if he kept blaming himself his life wouldn't be worth living, yet he couldn't point the blame to anyone else.

After lying there for who know how long he lifted his head up to see were he was. He winced as he felt pain on the back of his neck were his newly formed sunburn was. He got on his knees and looked in the distance. He saw the Vegas skyline. He turned around and felt more tears well up in his eyes. When he turned he saw a red mustang about five feet away.

"No, no," he whispered as he crawled closer to the car. As he got closer he kept seeing her. The day they first met in San Francisco. The day he asked to stay in Vegas. The lab explosion she was in. When he rushed her out of that market when she offered to be bait for the strip-strangler. When she was trapped in the nurses' office in the mental institute. He remembered the Debbie Marlin case and how he lost so much sleep over it. He remembered their first date, their first kiss, and the day she moved in, the day they got Bruno. Then one memory pushed all the rest away. Her smile, the smile that will always bring joy into his heart no matter how bad the situation was.

As he sat there he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and heard a voice. "Imagine being lost out there, not sure which way to go, not sure if you will ever drink water again, if you will ever again be surrounded by your friends and the ones you love."

He didn't know why but something told him not to look around, something about the hand felt like it belongs on his shoulder.

After a few minutes of silence the voice spoke again.

"You have that Grissom look" and he couldn't stand it any longer, he looked around and saw the homeless woman that had been chasing him sitting behind him. "You ran from me Gil" she commented as he looked at her. She wore a coat made of who knows what filled with the same. The coat was so big that the only part of her he could see was her head. Her hair was full of mud, sand, trash, and grease. It looked like her hair was brunette but because of the stuff in it he couldn't tell. It covered her face except for her smile, the same smile he had imagined earlier.

"Sara" he whispered, pulling her hair from her face.

"Sorry I scared you Gil" she replied.

"But how?" he asked, she was about to tell him when they heard some cars coming from the city.

"Hey, there he is" they heard Catherines voice after a series of doors opening and closing.

"I told you he would be here" Greg bragged.

"Hey, Griss, what are you doing out here? You worried us" Warrick started "and who's this?" he asked about Sara, cause unlike Grissom she had stayed seated facing the mustang.

"Guys, I want you to meet a friend of mine, Sara Sidle, Sara, this is my team" he said as he helped her up. When he said it everyone's' face lit up, half in joy, yet half in disbelief.

"Man Sara, we thought you were dead," Nick broke the silence while coming up to hug her.

"Ya, we had lost all hope" Greg started as he also gave her a hug, then continued. "You are going to shower soon, right?" he then tripped a little as Warrick came up to embrace her and pushed the young CSI on the way.

"You know what Greg, I decided I like the look" she said sarcastically then added on in the same tone, "its nice that my family thought I was dead. You guys know me better then that."

"Why were you guys looking for me any way?" Grissom asked them.

"Well we thought we had lost Sara and we didn't want to risk losing you as well" Brass explained as he pulled Sara into his arms.

"So Sara, what happened? I mean we found the car over month ago but, well, you weren't there. After we found it I almost had to drag Gil here back to work, and that was what a week ago. Though we all know why now" Catherine said eyeing Sara then Grissom then gave Sara a knowing look.

"You told them didn't you?" Sara whispered to Grissom.

"It sorta just slipped out" he whispered back, Sara then told them what happened.

"She attacked me when I was going to my car, she called out my name so I turned around and she hit me on the head with something, I musta passed out because the next thing I knew I was waking up under the car. I felt like I was going to die. The car was crushing me from above so I could barely move."

"Wait, if you couldn't move, how did you get out?" Greg interrupted.

"The thing is I don't know, one minute I was stuck, the next I wasn't. I thought I was free, but I soon realized I wasn't. I wasn't trapped by twisted metal anymore, but sand, heat, and my own mind trapped me.

"I wondered for days. Each step caused pain; each breath dried my mouth more. I devoted all my energy to find the city lights. To get back home. Eventually nothing remained of the city but a collage of blurred casino lights. It was so bright. There were six silhouettes against the lights, I didn't understand then but I do now, it was you guys. The only thing that kept me sane, the thought that at least six people wanted me back" while she said it the entire team noticed that she kept looking at Grissom. They knew that she probraly thought of the nameless silhouette Grissom more then them, but they didn't care, anything to get her back safe, and sane.

"I wondered into the city one night, but I didn't remember anything so I lived as a homeless. I always stayed in the alley, until I saw a huge crowd with police cars. I was curious so I joined the crowd. I left when I saw Gil, and he saw me, though I don't think he recognized me. After that memories started to come back, well it's more like the silhouettes became more clear, and they each had a mane."

"Was that what you were saying when I passed you in the alley?" Grissom asked her.

""Ya, but I could only grasp the first sound of each name, until Gil walked past. Then I remembered everything. I called out his name but apparently I scared him because he started to run. I tried but I couldn't run so I followed his footprints and found him sitting here" she finished.

"You weren't that far from the city the entire time Sara, five miles, that's all" Grissom told her coming up help her up because while she was telling her story she had sat down and crossed her legs. When she was standing they started walking to the cars. Sara suddenly fell and yelled out in pain.

"Sara, what's wrong?" Grissom asked after he caught her and lowered her to the ground.

"Leg," was all she could say through the pain. He slowly lifted up her pant leg, and unwrapped a bloody cloth that she had tied around her leg, to find a nasty cut starting about an inch under her knee and stopped halfway down her shin. Not only was it long, it was deep, is some places you could see the white of the bone, it was clearly infected.

"Sara, we have to get you to a hospital" he told her softly, trying to calm her down. His voice was swimming with concern. "Someone call an ambulance" he shouted not looking up from Sara.

"Already done Gil, there on their way," Brass told him. They stood there, except Grissom and Sara who were on the ground, until the ambulance came. After the medics got Sara in the ambulance they closed the door and drove of, the rest of the team got in their cars and they drove after it. When they got to the city they split up, Catherine, Grissom, and Brass drove to the hospital, while the rest first drove to the lab to tell everyone the news.

"Dr. Grissom" a nurse said and Grissom looked up at her.

"How is she?" he asked about Sara, he had been sitting there for an hour.

"She'll be fine, the leg was bad, it required surgery. She's still out but you can go see her," as soon as she said it he was up and heading to her room.

The nurse was right, she was out, but he didn't care. She was safe and with him. Hours later she woke up and immediately saw Grissom asleep in a chair next to her. For a moment she debated if she should wake him, but decided against it, he looked like he needed sleep. A few minutes later he woke and saw her looking at him.

""Hey honey, you okay?" he asked her.

"Ya," she replied, "How long have you been here?"

"About three hours" he answered after looking at the clock on the wall.

"Thanks for staying," as she said it the rest of the team walked through the door.

"Hey girl, how you doing?" Warrick asked her.

"I'm fine guys. I'm just not sure I'll be comfortable around red mustangs for a while" she replied with a small smile, while the rest of the team laughed at her comment.

"Its good to have you back Sara" Nick said coming up. She saw the concern in her eyes and knew he was thinking of his own abduction and how he is still nervous of going underground, even in a basement.

After half an hour the doctor came and told them that visiting hours were over. It took a while but, with the combined forces of Sara and Catherine, they managed to get Grissom to leave. He left with a smile on his face. She was really back. He had her back and wasn't going to let anything else happen to her.


End file.
